12 fl oz brown glass bottle with standard pressure cap served into a Uinta pilsner glass in me gaff in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California. Reviewed live. Expectations are average given the brewery. I like the style. Acquired at Cap N Cork in Los Feliz as part of a Sierra Nevada beer camp 12 pack.

Served straight from the refrigerator. Side-poured with standard vigor as no carbonation issues are anticipated.

A: Pours a three finger tan colour head of nice cream and thickness, and good retention. Body colour is a solid black. Nontransparent; non-opaque. No yeast particles are visible. No bubble show.

Sm: I get the mocha identified by the label, but in minute quantities. Hints of chocolate malt. Dark malts. Very slight roast. Oats. An average strength aroma. Typical for the style. No yeast or alcohol comes through. There's nothing unique or special here.

T: Rolled oats, chocolate malt, a dark malt foundation, mocha cream (I'd stop short of calling it java or coffee), hints of roasted barley, and a bit of caramel. The roast is severely underdone, and feels limited. Alcohol is barely detectable. No yeast comes through. Well balanced, but underwhelming. Even the oats are a bit underdone.

Mf: Smooth and wet in classic oatmeal stout fashion. The label goes a bit far by calling it "silky", but it does suit the flavour profile. Good thickness and presence. Moderately heavy on the palate.

Dr: Hides its ABV well. Quite drinkable. Good for getting bollocksed, but not particularly interesting in terms of flavour. I might try it on nitro (if it's offered). A decent offering from Sierra Nevada. Pretty par for the course as far as Oatmeal Stouts go. I like it, but there's nothing unique or special here.

The beer pours a blackish brown color with good head retention and lacing. The nose in this beer is really, really impressive, as I picked up something of a smoke flavor, which I thought went beautifully with the abundant dark chocolate, coffee and vanilla I picked up. The flavor profile replciates the nose in this impressive beer, though there was also an interesting licorice and hoppy bitterness component on the finish that I appreciated. Some stouts seem to overdo it on the licorice, but I thought this beer had just the right amount. It, along with the hoppy bitterness, seemed to beautifully balance the moderate sweetness I picked up initially. Mouthfeel was fairly full, and I thought the beer was almost viscuous on the palate. Otherwise, the finish was long, with a slighly bitter, licorice edge to it. Alcohol was well integrated into the flavor profile, and so despite the 9% abv., the beer was not at all heavy or tiring to drink.

A: Poured from the bottle into a pint glass. Body is black with a small brown head that settles fast. No lacing.

S: Good big-stout nose: some roasted coffee and chocolate malt, but with some sort of dark fruit (maybe black cherries) as well.

T: I'm drinking this one kinda warm (the beer sat on the counter for awhile while I got side-tracked with other things) to start, and I suspect I would've noted different tastes had I drank it 25 minutes ago. Right now I get a good amount of chocolatey malt (milk chocolate, not dark or bitter), some dark fruit and a hint of char. Finishes with a touch of bitterness that I attribute more to hops than roast - maybe a touch of pine needles is there - and then the alcohol heat is noted pretty strongly on the way down the gully and into the belly.

M: Good creaminess from the oatmeal. Definitely full-bodied in heft. A slight oiliness coats the palate with sweet chocolate.

O: This is good stuff. I thought it was going to be a lighter, traditional (i.e., non-double) Oatmeal Stout. It's obviously not that. If the alcohol was just a little more muted I would've bumped this score up. As it is though, if SN sold this in reasonably-priced sixers, I'd buy it nearly as quickly as I'd buy Old Rasputin or Storm King (at higher prices) or Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout. IMO, it's nearly in their class.

Pours an opaque black with a foamy dark khaki head that fades to nothing. No lacing on the drink down. Smell is of dark roasted malt, toasted oats, cocoa, and some slight cookie dough aromas. Taste is much the same with an alcohol kick and a medium amount of roasty bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a good level of carbonation with a crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is a pretty good beer but I think the smell is better than the taste.

Poured from a 12 oz bottle into a tulip glass. Nice dark brown deep color with small dark tan 1 finger head. Good chocolate malt aromas. Sweet chocolate malt taste with hint of alcohol to taste. Nice mouth tingle with lingering hints of alcohol. Overall a decent oatmeal stout. May be a little better with some age

The first sip of this beer raised my eyebrows. I have always been a big fan of their hoppier offerings, but the stouts were good and not great. This stout is very good. Everything that you would want in an oatmeal stout. The creamy texture. The medium-to heavy-texture. Pours a pitch black color with almost not head head. A aroma is smoky with roasted malts and light mocha. Lower carbonation reduces the nose a bit. The aroma is right on but not as strong as I would have liked. The taste is where this beer really shines. Its not Old Rasputin, but i think it's close. Flavor is smooth roast, dark fruit, sweet dark oils, coffee, lactose, metal, smoke. Very good. Well done Sierra Nevada

One dark beer. Dense black with just over one finger of tan head that had good retention. The head eventually settles to a thick cap. Rings of lacing is left down the glass.

The aroma was a bit of a letdown. Quite a bit of alcohol is detected and the malt barely gets through. Subtle hints of mocha and some baking spice.

The beer is quite boozy but there is plenty of roasted malt that flavors this beer. Not as complex as I would hope but still quite nice. Bitterness is more than moderate that seems to come from the roasted malt. Finishes warm with a moderately strong alcohol flavor.

Just a wonderful texture from this beer. One of the finer uses of oats demonstrated within this stout. Soft, velvety,full, rich, and smooth are just few adjectives to describe the feel.

Not a complete success from Sierra Nevada. But still a very worthwhile drinking experience. Just a little too boozey for me.

The beer pours much as the back label describes it; “midnight black.” There are faint ruby glimmerings from within the body, and some very light carbonation bubbles. The head is a very light tan color and not too large, leaving behind lacing that is sticky and long, like tentacles rising up from the rescinding beer-line on my glass. The beer smells roasty with nice notes of chocolate and coffee. The oat is also slightly present as a sweet cereal hint that melds with the roasted malts. The beers taste follows the nose nicely with big roasted malt notes, strongly reminiscent of coffee. The taste begins first and foremost as those roasted malts with light chocolate notes which opens up to further roasted notes and then begins to suggest slight citrusy notes (presumably from the hops) before falling back into the roasted grain and cereal flavor that hints at the oats within the beer. Mouthfeel is chewy, thick, and clean, leaving a slight dry feeling tingling over the tongue, even as some saliva pools there to await the next sip. Overall this is a nice roasty oatmeal stout. Nothing too fancy is introduced with this beer, but it is a lovely example of the style, and well worth sampling.

Appearance: The beer is as black as dirty motor oil, with no hint of even the slightest hue of brown on the edges, at least until much later. A fine frothy, chunky mocha head slowly recedes to a rough sea of choppy foam film, before settling to a wisp with a tight mocha ring around the edge of the glass. Massive thick lacing coats the glass leaving what I call a world map pattern.

Aroma: The aroma of this beer is dark and rich. An immediate freshly baked oatmeal cookie greets me first, and there’s actually a really solid black licorice note in there as well.

Taste: The taste profile is just as rich as the aroma. The beer starts off with a deliciously dry yet hearty bittersweet chocolate chip note. Which reminds me of choc-chip oatmeal cookies ... And from there, the slightly alcoholic burn of the 9% greats the throat, but not before filling your taste buds up with dark roasted malts, hearty oats, and just a faint kiss of black licorice. The beer finishes with sharp, bitter hops, leaving a tangy aftertaste.

Mouthfeel: Super, super dry.

Overall: Geez, this was so good that half-way into it, I started to realize that this 9% brew means business. What an awesome, excellent dessert beer this would make. I drank it out of my favorite snifter, which seemed quite appropriate.

Deep black in appearance, with a thick head of tan foam. Lace is thick and detailed. Very nice.

Nose is chocolate and nutty. Very appealing.

Taste is bittersweet with tinges of mocha, cocoa, and some mildly roasty malts at the finish. Heavy alcohol is hidden until the finish, where the heat is exposed a little. Overall, a rich, flavorful brew, and a top-notch brew!

This pours a nice jet balck body with a nice 2' tan foamy head that doesn't hang around for long, then leaves a nice thin lace around the top. The smell is of roasted malt and coffee. The taste is of roasted malt with chocolate and coffee coming through also a little bit of hops just enough that u can tell they are there but not there. The mouth feel is nice, it is on the heavier side but its a nice stout.

A: Very dark brown. Pours about a 1 finger, foamy, brown white head. Settles pretty quickly leaving a sparse blanket of foam on the surface. Very spars lacing mostly quickly retreats into the body of the brew.

M: Hefty and hearty and sticky. Peaty, pungent aftertaste wears on throughout the experience. Dry in the finish.

D: This is of the sipping variety.

Atmosphere is pretty good. Dark, intimidating appearance characterized by a pretty solid foamy head, but no real lacing. Nose is full, with a few basic expected components. Hearty roasted, slightly, sweet and pungent malty character. Overall, this is a good quaff.